The digitisation of processes and services within public administrations has for some time been of increasing importance as a means to increase the efficiency and quality of services. It is therefore paramount that IT systems and databases can communicate with one another in a manner that ensures that data transfers can be interpreted by the recipient. The importance of this is illustrated by the high priority placed on eGovernment actions in the eEurope 2005 Action Plan and the Ministerial Declaration following the high-level Ministerial eGovernment Conference (Como, Italy) in July 2003, which recognised that the “…cooperation required to develop pan-European services depends in part on the interoperability of information and communication systems used at all levels of government…”. This, in addition to the 2003 eGovernment Communication (1) identifying the need for the development of an interoperability framework to support the delivery of eGovernment services to citizens and enterprises, led the European Commission to launch the Modinis (2) calls for tenders in 2004
